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Bangs Canyon: Rough Canyon Loop

After Work Adventures | Tuesday, April 23, 2024

As I’ve been trying to hike more local trails during the week, I realized that I had not hiked much of Rough Canyon within the Bangs Canyon Recreation Area and thought it was finally time to remedy that oversight after work today. So this afternoon I drove up to the Bangs Canyon Trailhead and started hiking down Rough Canyon from where it splits off from the more popular Mica Mine Trail. I mistakenly thought this was going to be an easy hike along a good trail the entire way, but there turned out to be a bit more scrambling and route-finding along the way than I was expecting. It was nothing too difficult, but I had just assumed there would be a well-used trail down the canyon since it’s in a popular area close to town. I followed the the canyon downstream until it opened up near the mouth of Cross Canyon and then met up with the Tabeguache Trail which I followed back up to the trailhead to complete a loop. It turned out to be a nice loop through a rugged canyon that’s pretty close to home.

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Third Flats: Cedar Point Road to Haystack 3 Point

After Work Adventures | Monday, April 1, 2024

When I left work this afternoon, I headed up into the Third Flats section of the Bangs Canyon Recreation Area so I could get in a short hike to a local highpoint before going home. Since I have pretty much completed hiking all of the Kokopelli Trails near Loma now, I figured this area would be a good place to focus my attention to for my next local trails project, especially since it’s close to town and I have not been on any of the trails in this area before, aside from the one time I drove up the Billings Canyon Jeep Trail back in 2006. I decided to start out by hiking up the Cedar Point Road to Haystack 3 Point while also hiking parts of the Quad Rocker, Easy Rider and Canyon View Trails along the way. There was a lot of stormy weather around the Grand Valley this afternoon which made for some dynamic and dramatic conditions along the way. Here are a couple photos from my short afternoon hike.

Upper Ute Canyon to Suction Point

After Work Adventures | Tuesday, October 17, 2023

With each and every day quickly getting shorter and shorter at this time of the year, I only have a couple of weeks left where I can possibly squeeze in a few more After Work Adventures, so after work today I headed up into the Colorado National Monument to go on a short hike into upper Ute Canyon. Although I have hiked down through Ute Canyon from the upper trailhead a number of times before, this time I wanted to hiked up the canyon until I reached the large pour-over at Suction Point. It turned out to be a pretty nice place for an evening hike in the Monument.

Lizard Canyon in the Colorado National Monument

After Work Adventures | Tuesday, September 12, 2023

This afternoon I decided to head on over to the Colorado National Monument after work so I could go hiking into Lizard Canyon, which is the next short canyon located just north of Wedding Canyon and south of Fruita Canyon. Although I have hiked across the mouth of this canyon a couple of times before, usually during our traverses across the Face of the Monument, this is actually one of the few canyons left in the Monument that I have not hiked into before. I started the hike from the Lower Monument Canyon Trailhead and followed the Wedding Canyon Trail into the mouth of Wedding Canyon where I left the main trail and followed use trails up and over a small divide into Lizard Canyon.

Stinking Desert National Monument

After Work Adventures | Wednesday, September 6, 2023

Even though it was a little bit warmer out today than yesterday, I thought it would be a good time to head out after work so I could drive and hike to the top of a couple easy highpoints and overlooks located in the desert between Grand Junction, Delta, the Grand Mesa and the Gunnison River, and maybe even catch the sunset before heading home. This is an area that longtime locals affectionately (or maybe it’s not so affectionate) call the Stinking Desert. I’ve heard stories from long before my time living in Grand Junction about how an official-looking sign for the Stinking Desert National Monument would show up along the highway during holiday weekends, and I’ve always thought that would have been funny to see, so I’m going to honor that unofficial National Monument with this little Trip Report. Welcome to the Stinking Desert!

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Tag: grand junction

Bangs Canyon: Rough Canyon Loop

Third Flats: Cedar Point Road to Haystack 3 Point

Upper Ute Canyon to Suction Point

Lizard Canyon in the Colorado National Monument

Stinking Desert National Monument